Nutritional and dietary supplements such as multi-vitamins and minerals, botanicals and herbal extracts have grown in popularity, as evidenced by the tremendous growth in the industry involved in their manufacture, production and distribution. Such supplements can be consumed in a variety of ways, the most common being in powder or capsule form.
The consumption of powders suffers from problems such as low solubility or dispersability in water or juice and unpleasant mouthfeel and taste. Many supplements are poorly absorbed into the body and a common approach to this problem is to consume larger doses, which can result in unpleasant side effects including cramping, bloating and flatulence. Thus, a number of different delivery systems have been developed to attempt to improve oral methods of delivering various supplements or active ingredients.
A number of encapsulated formulations have been developed which encapsulate or retain functional ingredients in various glassy, sintered or chewy confectionery-type matrixes. In general, the confectionery serves as a solid continuous matrix for the active ingredient or supplement. The active ingredient is delivered according to the dissolution rate of the confectionery matrix, which confers a solid taste in the mouth. Crushing the confectionery is a solution for the consumer to speed up the release of the active ingredient but this solution may be undesirable as dental problems may arise and/or the release rate of the active ingredient incorporated therein may no longer be optimal. Depending upon the method of manufacturing the confectionery matrix, the active ingredient may suffer from deterioration or damage due to heat and/or mechanical stresses in the manufacturing process. Often, high deterioration rates due to strong processing conditions are compensated for by overdosing of the active ingredient in the confectionery matrix, however, this is a costly method resulting in the wastage of a lot of the active ingredient. The “solid” taste a pressed tablet or glassy matrix may provide in the mouth may also be considered as not very attractive in the context of delivering active ingredients, especially if the product is supposed to be primarily a confectionery.
Liquid-filled boiled sweets are known and may also be used to deliver active ingredients. However, despite the fact the centre is primarily liquid, the whole product has a tendency to melt as one piece in the mouth. The liquid centre does not release from the casing rapidly but rather melts slowly and progressively, thus making a pasty mass.
Powdered sugar filling in a high boiled sweet has also been known for many years in the manufacture of traditional confectioneries such as “Sherbet Lemon” in England. This type of confectionery behaves in the mouth in a way similar to liquid-filled boiled sweets with the casing and filling melting slowly in the mouth and has not been used for delivering active ingredients.
Encapsulation of active ingredients has been described in a number of publications. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,897 describes the encapsulation of medications, pesticides, vitamins, preservatives or flavouring agents within a glassy matrix consisting of modified starch and a polyhydric alcohol and European Patent EP 0904 784 describes a probiotic preparation with health promoting action comprising bacterial cells, novelose and arabic gum included in a 3-gram proteinic capsule. U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,092 describes pharmaceutical compositions in the form of pleasant-tasting chewable tablets, or chewable coated tablets, which contain at least one rapidly swelling physiologically acceptable gel former plus sugar or sugar substitutes in addition to the pharmaceutically active ingredient sulfacrate.
Similarly, a number of publications describe various means for encapsulating probiotic microorganisms. U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,631, for example, describes a bifidobacterium-containing confectionery tablet including one or more of substances selected from starch, starch hydrolyzate and protein, while Japanese Patent JP 2893021 describes a boiled sweet enclosing bifidobacteria. The bifidobacteria are encapsulated with a protective coating film and diluted with a mixture of powdered sugar or sugar alcohol as a filling. Japanese Patent JP 60083535 describes a preparation of candies containing lactobacilli made by mixing sugar and millet honey, chilling, pulverising and adding activated lactobacilli powder. Japanese Patent JP 57032221 describes candy tablets containing bifidus microorganism made by mixing microorganism powder with fat, adding further raw materials and tabletting. A confectionery composition containing a long-life lactic bacteria, fats and/or oil, fermented milk powder and saccharide is described in European Patent EP 704164 and German Patent DE 19830528 discloses a multi-layer tablet comprising nutritious substances and microorganisms, which can be stored without cooling.
This background information is provided for the purpose of making known information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.